Berry Center in Ecology Graduate Fellowships

We started providing graduate fellowships for students interested in avian ecology and conservation in 2006. Beginning in 2008, we anticipate providing $70,000 a year for graduate fellowships for students in our Department (two $20,000/yr fellowships and three $10,000/yr research fellowships).

2006 Fellowships were provided to Eric Anderson and John Stanek. Eric received $13,000 for his research on scoters (Melanitta spp.). Continental populations of scoters have declined by about 60% since the late 1970s.  Designed to inform protection efforts, Eric Anderson’s PhD studies focus on the role of specific coastal resources (e.g., eelgrass habitats, spawning events of Pacific herring) in enabling scoters to regulate their condition throughout the annual cycle.  Extensive field efforts spanning four years were completed in March 2006 and the Berry Graduate Fellowship will be used to complete critical laboratory analyses (i.e., scoter condition, diet using stable isotopes and fatty acids, and fattening rates using blood metabolites).

Eric Anderson’s field studies of Surf (Melanitta perspicillata) and White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca) include three main components.  First, in northern Puget Sound he is using data on food availability, diet, foraging behavior, and body condition to evaluate the role of alternative benthic habitats (particularly eelgrass beds) for scoters during molting, wintering, and spring staging periods.  Second, he is using diet and condition data in the Puget Sound-Georgia Basin and southeast Alaska to clarify the role of herring spawn vs. alternative foods for spring conditioning of scoters.  Third, with multiple collaborators, Eric is using reproductive tissues collected from breeding areas in Alaska and Canada to estimate the contributions of marine vs. freshwater foods to breeding efforts of White-winged Scoters. 

John Stanek is new MS student in our Department and he used his Berry Graduate Fellowship ($3,000) to begin a project examining the distribution of Brown-capped Rosy-Finches (Leucosticte australis) in relation to snowpack during the breeding season. His goal is to use this information to inform us of the potential impact of snowpack decline on breeding populations of rosy-finches.